Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet Bible story for kids

Tonight's story has a towel in it. And a bowl of water. And a whole lot of dusty feet.

It happened in Jerusalem, the great city in the hills, a few days after the crowds had waved their branches and shouted, "Hosanna!" It was springtime, and nearly time for the Passover feast.

Jesus knew something. He knew that his time had come. The time for him to leave this world and go to his Father. And the Bible tells us how he felt about his friends. It says, "having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."

He loved them to the end. All the way.

So one evening, Jesus and his friends were together, having supper.

Maybe little lamps were lit, their flames flickering. Maybe there was bread on the table, and a cozy murmur of voices. The Bible doesn't tell us much about the food. It tells us about something else.

During supper, Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into his hands. He knew that "he came from God, and was going to God."

All things! Into his hands! He was the most important person in that whole room. In the whole world.

And what did he do?

He got up from the supper. He took off his outer robe. He took a towel, and wrapped it around his waist. Like an apron.

Then he poured water into the basin. Glug, glug, glug.

And he began to wash his friends' feet.

In those days, people walked almost everywhere in sandals, on roads of dirt and stone. Maybe their feet were dusty from the road. Maybe a little bit smelly, too! And washing feet was the kind of job a servant might do.

But here was Jesus, down at his friends' feet. Maybe he knelt on the floor. Splash, splash, a little scrub. And then he dried them with the very same towel that was tied around him. Then the next friend's feet. And the next.

Then he came to Simon Peter.

Peter. The fisherman who once stepped right out of a boat onto the waves. Peter, who never did anything halfway.

And Peter said, "Lord, do you wash my feet?"

Jesus answered him, "You don't know what I am doing now, but you will understand later."

But Peter had his answer ready. "You will never wash my feet!"

Never! I wonder if he tucked his feet right up underneath him. The Bible doesn't tell us why Peter said it. Maybe it just seemed all wrong to him, his own Teacher down there with a towel.

And Jesus answered him, "If I don't wash you, you have no part with me."

And I don't think Peter wanted to be left out. Not one little bit.

So Peter said, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!"

From "never" to "everything!" Feet, hands, head... the whole Peter, please!

And Jesus said to him, "Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed, but is completely clean."

It's a bit like bath time. Once you've had your bath, you don't need another one straight away, do you? Just a quick wash for your feet. I think Jesus meant something more than feet, too. Something Peter would understand later.

So Jesus went on, until he had washed their feet.

Then he put his outer robe back on. And he sat down again, at the table, with his friends.

And he asked them, "Do you know what I have done to you?"

Maybe nobody said a word. Maybe they just looked down at their clean feet, and then at him.

And Jesus said, "You call me, 'Teacher' and 'Lord.' You say so correctly, for so I am."

The Teacher. The Lord. Down at his friends' feet, with a towel and a basin.

"If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you."

You will understand later, Jesus had told Peter. Later. Not yet. Some things take a long while to understand, even for grown-ups.

Later that evening, while they were still around the table, Jesus called his friends something lovely. He called them "Little children."

Little children! Some of them were big, bearded fishermen, maybe with rough hands and sunburnt noses.

And he gave them something new.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another."

Just as I have loved you. With a towel, and his own two hands, and all of his heart.

And he said, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

He came from God. He was going to God. And there, around that table, he loved his friends. To the end. All the way.

Maybe, when it was all done, the towel was hung up to dry, somewhere in the corner, in the soft lamplight.

And God was with him. God was with her. God is with you, too.

Warm and clean now, little one. May the same God who tied a towel around His waist and washed His friends' feet, one by one... love you to the end, just as He loved them.